Read And Follow The Directions

March is a month of birthdays in our family.
My husband and my firstborn have birthdays one week apart.
I tease my husband from his birthday in mid-March until my birthday in July.
Oh, how I love to be younger than him for four months of the year.

This same daughter overheard my teasing through the years.
When she went to preschool, the celebration of birthdays was always something special.
She told her preschool teacher that she and her daddy had birthdays close together.
She also told her teacher that her mommy was married to an older man.

Imagine the preschool teacher’s surprise when my husband and I walked in together.
We were not what she expected.
We were young and basically the same age.
She laughed and explained her incorrect assumptions that were not totally her fault.

March is the month of birthday cakes.
The famous Gallagher Sour Cream Chocolate Chip cake.
The homemade cake that is one of those things you splurge on as you forget calories.
The cake that everyone clamors for, expect my youngest son who does not like cake.

I have the recipe memorized by now after making the cake for so many years.
The house has the delicious smell of cinnamon wafting through the rooms.
Batter, chocolate chips, and cinnamon sugar make each of the two layers.
The cake is made in a special pan that is worn from use but adds to the deliciousness.

As I made the cake for my daughter I was thinking about the need to follow a recipe.
Too much baking soda and not enough baking powder will give you different results.
Creaming the butter rather than melting the butter is mandatory.
The cake needs twenty-seven minutes to bake; the time has been tested through the years.

This cake calls for the chocolate chips to be sprinkled on top of the layers.
Other recipes, like Toll House cookies, call for the chocolate chips to be mixed in.
It shouldn’t matter, but it does.
The placement of the chocolate chips is everything.

If you make this cake and happen to get distracted, you can easily make a mistake.
It has been done in this house, especially when my children made the cake for me.
It tastes the same but it does not look the same.
The layers mean everything for the success of the recipe.

Recipes and directions are so important if you want to get something done right.
Reading the directions first lets you see what you need to complete the task.
Reading the directions first allows you to mentally map out the process.
I have learned through the years about the importance of following directions.

I was in grade school and a test was given.
We were told to read through the test first before starting.
I wanted to get finished fast and get finished first.
I just dove in and began the fifty-question test.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see people walking up to the teacher’s desk.
They placed their test on her desk and sat back down in their seat.
I got more and more frustrated.
How could they have finished their test so quickly?

I labored through each question and finally got to the last one.
I couldn’t believe what I read in question number fifty.
Do not answer any questions on this test.
Write your name at the top and place the test on my desk.

That’s how the others got done so quickly.
I was not the only one who failed to read through the test first.
There were others of us with our heads down, writing furiously.
There were others but we were definitely in the minority.

In not wanting to waste time reading through the test, I actually wasted more time.
I did needless work.
I became unnecessarily frustrated.
I thought I knew better.

I was terribly wrong.
That lesson has never been forgotten.
I learned the futility of haste.
I learned that directions are given for a reason.

And God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, not the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.
Honor your father and mother, so that you may live a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not commit murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:1-17)

These are God’s directions.
He wants us to read them in their entirety.
He wants us to follow them.
We think we know better.

In haste and disobedience we keep our heads down and go our own way.
How foolish we are.
God has given us His directions for life and practice.
God’s directions are for our good and His glory.

Follow them.